OP proceeds from the assumption that every ballot is counted on election night. It's not. Lets take a normal election, not 2020. Take a state like Kansas, which leans GOP. Polls close election night at 7pm.
As the county results roll in a few hours later, Republican X takes the lead....then the urban counties report in...he loses some of his lead but not all of it....more urban counties roll in....80% of the state has reported their counts by midnight and Republican has 60-40 lead...it is statistically impossible for the remaining 20% of counties to have such high numbers toward the Democrat that the 60-40 lead is lost, at most it might go down somewhat. At that point, they call the state. Actual counting of every ballot takes a while, usually a few days.
What 2020 did, was they stopped the count, and the Democrats made sure that their urban counties made up the difference of the early reporting Trump leaning counties...and kept counting over the course of a week until they had their victory.
OP proceeds from the assumption that every ballot is counted on election night. It's not. Lets take a normal election, not 2020. Take a state like Kansas, which leans GOP. Polls close election night at 7pm.
As the county results roll in a few hours later, Republican X takes the lead....then the urban counties report in...he loses some of his lead but not all of it....more urban counties roll in....80% of the state has reported their counts by midnight and Republican has 60-40 lead...it is statistically impossible for the remaining 20% of counties to have such high numbers toward the Democrat that the 60-40 lead is lost, at most it might go down somewhat. At that point, they call the state. Actual counting of every ballot takes a while, usually a few days.
What 2020 did, was they stopped the count, and the Democrats made sure that their urban counties made up the difference of the early reporting Trump leaning counties...and kept counting over the course of a week until they had their victory.